Heating a coop

[mwhidden]

I live in Maine. I have an 8 x 8 building with a 8 ft. ceiling (at the peak). The walls are two layers, partical board inside and t-111 (sp?) outside. It is trimmed outside and in so there are no drafts. The door is insulated and the chicken door is also. I cover the windows with plastic in the winter. Last year we used an oil filled radiator heater on a timer. It worked well, keeping the coop at around 25 degrees which they seemed happy with. It was expensive though. Does anyone have a more efficient way of heating to keep the coop to at least 20 degrees?

 

[patandchickens]

Do you have some particular non-cold-hardy breed that *needs* to be kept at 20 F? Most chickens don't. If you were having frostbite problems on "normal" cold-hardy breeds at 20F, it was almost certainly a humidity (i.e. insufficient ventilation) problem, not temperature per se.

Anyhow, if you do for whatever reason want to keep the coop at 20F, well, the first thing is to insulate the bejeebers out of the coop. Take off the inside wall surface and pack the space between studs with insulating batts or, better but a bit pricier unless you get them by scrounging, rigid foamboard insulation or styrofoam panels. (Styrofoam can often be gotten for free from stores that recieved it as packing for mdse. and don't want to have to pay for the dumpster space to throw it away -- but if you use styrofoam, make sure your carpentry is good 'n' tight because if mice get to livin' in there they will make an AWFUL mess!) Don't leave gaps, don't miss anywhere (although obviously make sure you're leaving your ventilation openings uncovered and usable!).

Insulate the ceiling too, at least as heavily as you insulate the walls. And you can use doublesided tape to put bubblewrap over the windows, to give you a slightly better R-value than plain plastic. (e.t.a. - oh, and close off the top of that 8' ceiling! make a temporary drop ceiling at 6' or so, ideally using reflective bubblewrap (but, use whatever ya got that'll work) staplegunned to 2x2s propped across as 'rafters'. This will decrease the am't of coop you have to heat. STill do insulate the underside of the roof above that drop ceiling, though, it'll be well worthwhile)

Secondly, see what you can do to improve solar heating. You could build a popcan-style solar heater (see threads elsewhere on BYC) or some variation. I have a small lean-to style run on the front of my chicken bldg, its footprint is just 4x7, that I plastic-wrap for winter and use as a solar heater. The air goes out the popdoor into the plasticized run, is heated by the sun, and by rising naturally reenters the coop thru the window that's enclosed by the run. I have to manually open and shut the popdoor and window, b/c if you leave 'em open when the sun is not out you are actively *cooling* the coop... but this 4x7 lean-to can raise the temperature of my VERY thermally-buffered 15x40 building by like 5-10 F on a sunny day. You can imagine how it would do in a smaller building like yours

Thirdly, with solar gain you ought to also try to maximize thermal mass inside the coop. The goal is to soak up as much of the daytime heating (which can easily become excess to the coop's needs otherwise) into barrels of water, or cinderblock-filled-with-gravel structures, or large rocks, or things built of concrete, so that the heat that's absorbed during the day will be slowly released at night and help keep the coop warmer. My building has a cement slab that serves this purpose (really well) but it can be retrofit to smaller coops by some of the abovementioned methods.

Another strategy that's useful is to partition off an area for the chickens to stay warmer, so their body heat is concentrated and keeeps them comfier. You can put in a drop ceiling or hover over the roost, or partition off a little 'coop within the coop' for temporary winter use.

Finally, insofar as you are going to be adding any electric heat, the cheapest thing is probably to put a little lamp (does not necessarily have to be a heat lamp per se) over the roost so they can warm themselves when necessary, rather than your trying to heat the whole dern coop. Supposing a person DID want to heat the whole dern coop, which I think you've probably gathered by now that i think it should be the *last* possibility to be considered and only if all other measures are insufficient, then your oil-filled radiator is probably among the most effective efficient and safe methods.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[mwhidden]

Thank you so much for all your time and answer. I do not have any special breeds that need heat, I just feel bad for them. I do plan on adding a dropped ceiling with a piece of foam insulation and some strapping. We also talked about adding it to the floor as well. We can get under the building still or just add and re floor with another layer. I only have 14 chickens so I could make the coop a bit smaller as well. I like the bubble wrap over the window idea as opposed to just clear plastic. Thanks again!

 

[patandchickens]

It's not worth insulating the floor, just chuck a lot of shavings on there (i.e. extra bedding) and you'll get the same R value wiht a lot less expense and work

Definitely do insulate all teh rest of it though, as much as possible, that's the single most valuable step you can take.

I wouldn't make the actual coop any smaller, they will NEED that space during harsh weather, the less space they've got available the greater your chance of intractable cannibalism problems developing (and the less space, the harder it is to maintain good air quality) -- you can just knock together a partial or total enclosure *that they can choose whether or not to be inside*, you know? So that effectively there is a warm room in the coop.

Good luck, have fun, and remember that chickens can really take a lot more cold than that, poor air quality (insufficient ventilation -> humidity -> frostbite) is the more common wintertime problem,

Pat

 

[osagebill88]

I use a heat lamp dropped from the roof on a timer and it works well for me. Blocking off the North wind is what is most important here in OK. My roosts are high off the ground as well